Tantric Practice for Women
Starting this month, will again be presenting day workshops for women gradually taking you through all the main themes of this practice.
Tantric Practice for WomenTantra, the art of conscious sexuality, is a practice that has since ancient times been led by women. What has been a secret and mystical practice has now become accessible to seekers who are on a committed path of awareness. It is a special calling in my life to support women into the full flowering of where our sexuality can take us. The main elements of this work are:
• Understanding the unique qualities of female sexuality
• Opening to the flow of sexual energy/ kundalini through meditation, dance and breath work
• Unleashing blocks or integrating what has prevented this full flow through the chakras.
Working with the chakrasTantra is a practice that cultivates awareness of our oneness with existence through sexual awakening. This happens through the opening of the chakras. Chakras are energy centers in the body where consciousness collects around particular patterns. Typically in sexual encounter, we send our sexual energy outwards. We may experience deep bliss for a while, but generally this does not last. With Tantric awareness, our sexual vitality starts to move up our bodies like a snake that uncoils, from the root or base of the body all the way up through the crown. Sexual energy moves from the first chakra up. This process is often known at the Uncoiling of the Snake (sexual energy or kundalini). For more on the unique qualities of each chakra, see
http://shakti.co.za/blog/2008/04/tantra-and-chakras_14.htmlMany women have negative body memories from sexual experience. These can be from a range of sources, including direct invasion, inappropriate contact, painful or insensitive sex and judgments about the realm of the sexual. While engaging your personal healing journey in this realm will be intensified by private sessions with me, the continuous course will create a space for us to collectively and individually release and integrate past inhibiting memories. For more on my approach to this work, see
http://totalitytherapy.com/blog/2009/02/sexual-healing-copyright-shakti-malan.htmlA continuous courseFrom this month, I will again be running an ongoing course on Tantra for women. The course will consist of regular day workshops in which we will systematically work through the chakras. There are four of five themes per chakra. Each workshop will be an exploration of one or two of these themes dealing with specific elements of women’s sexuality related to that chakra.
You will benefit most from the workshops if you attend them from the beginning. However, the workshops will be structured in such a way that
you can attend any workshop at any stage (that is, you can enter and exit the process as it suits you.) I will advertise each workshop in a separate mail as well.
Growing with other womenThis continuous course will create a space for fluid community and support amongst women. We learn from each other and share in our experiences. The unfolding of our personal awareness can be deepened significantly through regular practice in a conscious group context.
MethodThe kinds of methods I use are:
Breath work
Guided meditations
Group discussions and sharing
Shamanic journeywork
Body tracking
Collaging, journaling and other creative expressions
Movement and dance
The methods will be an encouragement of the subtlety in women’s sexuality. The focus is on the movement of sexual energy in your own body; on getting to know your own body, and becoming attuned to how energy moves through you.
February and March workshops
First Chakra: Being in This Womanly Body
Times: 9.00 am - 4.30pm
Cost: R700pp per workshop
Place: Fish Hoek (20 Feb), Phakalane Hout Bay (27 March)
Bookings: Shakti@shakti.co.za
Sunday 20 February: Body and Desire
Morning: Saying yes to the body The first chakra will only open when we say yes to being embodied, to being on the planet in a body. We women often view our own bodies critically. In this workshop, you will learn ways of coming to love your body through beautiful creative exercises. We will also begin to experience how sexual energy moves in a woman’s body trough breathing working with the perineum and movement in the pelvic area. This is the beginning of the journey of waking up female sexual energy in your being.
Afternoon: Embracing desireThe flow of our sexual energy starts at the root or first chakra, which is the seat of our desire. In its primal form, this energy is raw sexual desire, our primary eroticism. In order to practice Tantra, it is essential that we first embrace our dragon fire – our capacity for desire. In my experience, women often suppress or deny this quality of our sexuality. In this workshop I invite you to a fun, safe exploration of your desire. With it with come a flourish of new life force available to you.
Sunday 27 March: The Cosmic Dance of Life and Death
Morning: Our cosmic sexuality Women’s sexuality has a cosmic quality to it. It is elemental. It rises up in our bodies through the earth. Come discover and celebrate the flow of this energy with me in a morning of dancing and breath meditation.
Afternoon: The dance of life and death One of the main factors that block our flow in the first chakra is our survival fear. If you are staying in a relationship because you are afraid of not being able to provide a livelihood for yourself outside of it, this factor will impact on your first chakra sexual energy. At the root of it, all our survival fears relate to the fear of death. There is a beautiful Tantric meditation that helps us to accept and embrace the inevitable passing of things. This will be the focus of our workshop. As you come to accept death, you are ready to be fully alive.
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